In response to Benjamin Franklin…"A Republic, if you can keep it"…we have apparently decided to go with the antithetical chant of "no we can't." The path from citizen to subject has come to pass, regardless of our willingness to accept the inevitable, a milestone was set in place with the passage of Obamacare. What is left to say….another trite tome lamenting the destruction of Americanism to dump into the ocean of words already committed to paper and the electronic ether zone.

Who could set forth the futility of the human condition (devoid of God) better than King Solomon in Ecclesiastes…

A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises… All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again… What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already in the ages before us…

There really is nothing new under the sun, although it has been a pretty good run from 1776 to today… over 237 years. The notion of an individual existing with God-given rights, unassailable by others or a government was mind-boggling to conceive by our country's founders and fun while it lasted. What really made us believe that the exceptionalism of America could last, with people and all their deficiencies and human nature involved. The complacency caused by abundance for those who chose to embrace the birth-right of Americanism, juxtaposed with the hopelessness felt by those who have chosen or been coerced into government dependency inevitably has led to envy and covetousness. The promise of something for nothing in trade for a vote apparently isn't a hard decision to make for many. A famous quote regarding the end of democracy attributed to Alexander Tytler (or Henning Prentiss, depending on the source), is probably the most succinct explanation of our demise…

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

To an apparent majority, it is only fair that American individualism step aside for the good of the community as a whole. As we have demonstrated over the last two presidential election cycles, a majority in our country have a clear preference for community organizing, and to that end, we did select the best qualified candidate...the sheep have spoken and the shepherd is in place. ‘We the sheep" may still exercise our free will as we wander about in the paddock, but the shepherd's will is paramount and unquestionable.

Civil rights are for citizen-inhabitants of a country, not subjects who are under the control of the government. The NSA may listen to our mewing, the IRS or the Justice Department may punish those who stray from the flock. The community organizer will bring to bear the full power of his omnipotent federal government should any person or group stray from the community organization. "We the people" have apparently become the enemy domestic, just ask the TEA Party, alleged co-conspirator-reporter James Rosen and Fox News or any other critic of the President, the Koch brothers and many other wealthy Republican donors, et al., all subject to corrective actions and called out by name by the omnipotent-one as apparent enemies of his state.

The occasional sacrificial lambs in the form of ambassador Chris Stevens and his cohorts, left to die in Benghazi, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and others killed by the government's Fast and Furious program are apparently the small price "we the community" must be willing to pay for the services of the shepherd. According to the President's main-stream media propaganda machine, nothing to see here folks, move along.

Trite…really nothing new left to say. From Federalist 51…

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Perhaps all is not lost and a new vision can arise from the ashes after our American community is sufficiently organized. A bit of encouragement to carry forward with the fight against the collectivist-community organizer can be found in this thought from Winston Churchill…

…if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.

Robert T. Smith is an environmental scientist who spends his days enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness with his family. He confesses to cling to his liberty, guns and religion, with antipathy toward the arrogant ruling elites throughout the country.